Outside Improvisation — Four Ways to Play Outside
Outside improvisation has fascinated us for quite a while now. That’s why it’s becoming more and more widespread. While it used to be mainly found in jazz, now musicians who have nothing to do with jazz are also using it. At least that’s what I’ve noticed a lot lately.
As always, there are several ways to play “outside”. But I will show you all the variants here and you can choose which one you want to learn.
Outside Improvisation with Tensions
One way to achieve an outside effect is through tensions.
This type of improvising is also called “Upper Structure” or “Superimposing / Superimposition”.
This involves thinking in other chords. For example, if we have a CMaj7 (1,3,5,7) and we play an Em7 (1,b3,5,b7) over it, the Em7 in relation to the root C is a CMaj7(9) arpeggio.
But why is that?
Let’s do the example in absolute notes:
CMaj7 contains the following notes: C, E, G, B. The intervals in relation to the root “C” are: 1, 3, 5, 7.
Em7 sounds through these notes: E, G, B, D. In relation to the root “E” it is logically a completely normal minor7 chord. Namely: 1, b3, 5, b7. But in relation to “C” these intervals sound: 2, 3, 5, 7.
So we play the tension 2 (or 9) and don’t even have to think much about what we’re doing.
However, I advise against thinking in “other chords”. It is not ideal to see a CMaj7 chord and think: “I’m going to play an Em7 over it”. You’d better learn the CMaj7 arpeggio so well by heart that you can easily add another note to the arpeggio or, as in the example above, replace one note from it (in this example we replaced the root with the second (9)).
You can find a detailed selection of “arpeggios over arpeggios” or “chord on chord” under “Upper Structure”.
I’ll show you a small excerpt of it right here:
Outside Improvisation with Outside Notes
We call the notes that are neither chord notes (arpeggio notes) nor tensions outside notes. So actually “all the others” or “all the wrong ones”! 🙂
By the way, it only sounds wrong if you don’t manage to resolve it meaningfully. By resolve I mean to return to the original root.
Ultimately, the same thing can be done with the “outside notes” as with the “tensions”.
You can calculate an arpeggio.
Let’s say we want to find an arpeggio that contains a completely wrong note over CMaj7.
As an example we have a Maj7 chord here:
So if we put chord notes and tensions together, that gives: Lydian.
“All other” notes, such as b2, b3, 4, b6, b7 are therefore neither in the chord notes nor in the tension and are therefore “outside”.
Now let’s try to create an arpeggio that contains at least one arpeggio note, one tension and one completely wrong note.
To make this a little easier, I have a visual guide here that will hopefully help you find your own arpeggio.
Green: Arpeggio notes
Blue: Tensions
Red: Outside notes
Let’s assume that I would now play a dominant 7 chord from the major third, then I would have this result (I admit, it’s slowly but surely getting a bit confusing!):
In relation to the root “C” we play the major third (arpeggio note), the minor sixth (outside note) the major seventh (arpeggio note) and the second or ninth (tension).
But if we see it as a new arpeggio and would see the current major third as the root, it would be a very unspectacular E dominant 7 arpeggio.
Not boring at all, however, is the sound of it! 🙂
Outside Improvisation by Shifting
Shifting a logical line doesn’t really make sense, but it makes a lot of sense in terms of sound.
For example, a predictable line can easily be played a semitone higher or a semitone lower at a certain point.
The important thing here is that it has to be a line that makes sense even without this +1 or -1 shift.
Ultimately, a few notes from a very complicated lick can also be shifted arbitrarily. How it sounds as a whole usually depends on the listener. 😛
The pentatonic scale is very suitable for this, by the way, since the pentatonic scale can be easily moved back and forth.
Outside Improvisation with 12 Tone
Another way to improvise really weird is the 12 tone scale.
Since we normally have 7 notes per scale (except for pentatonic with five notes and hexatonic with six notes), we can simply take all 12 notes and improvise with them.
The rule for 12-tone music was once defined in such a way that all 12 notes must be played before one of them is repeated. This also applies to the octaves.
So much for 12 tone music. In 12-tone improvisation, however, it doesn’t matter when and how often something is repeated. There are simply no limits to what you can and cannot do.
But beware: it can still sound wrong! 🙂 So there are still rules to follow.
With these three four-note chords you can easily play all 12 notes without thinking too much about which note is still missing:
So if you use, for example, two or three notes from each of these arpeggios and then go to the next arpeggio and repeat that a few times, you also have a very weird improvisation that is at least theoretically based on the 12-tone scale.
Examples of Outside Improvisation
Download PDF and Guitar Pro
Outside Improvisation Example with Outside Notes and Tensions
In this example by Sam Birchall he uses the first variant we looked at here. He takes two chords and combines their arpeggios.
The two arpeggios he plays here are: CMaj7 and Abm7b5.
Now let’s calculate what that means in intervals with the root “C”:
CMaj7 is clear: 1, 3, 5, 7. But what about the Abm7b5?
The intervals of a minor7b5 are: 1, b3, b5, b7.
In relation to the root C, however, the intervals of Abm7b5 are: 9, #4, b6, 7
So we have:
2x Tensions (9, #4)
1x Outside Note (b6)
1x Arpeggio Note (7)
Outside Improvisation Example Shifting Pentatonic
In this example I simply played the Dm pentatonic scale up and shifted it up a semitone in the middle.
In addition to that, I also play a melodic rhythm. So it sounds like 16th notes, but the grouping of them is: 1,2,3,4,5,6, 1,2,3,4, 1,2,3,4, 1,2,3.
Where the bold numbers mean the shift.
Here you can actually see quite well that the numbers on the tabs “9 + 11” do not actually belong to the pentatonic scale. They were actually just moved down a semitone.
Outside Improvisation with 12 Tone
This example is from a battle in Mario Odyssey. 🙂
A lot of notes are used here that don’t really fit together. Or do they? 🙂
You can try playing this “lick” over a backing track in G major/minor. Since it ends on G, it should have a good resolution and at least make sense on the last note.